Watersmeet

[puddleshark]

I have been away, over the border in Devon for a few days, staying on Exmoor. The hills are higher and wider and wilder in Devon, and the valleys and the streams rockier. One day I followed the Coleridge Way long distance footpath from Rockford to Watersmeet.




There is indeed a ford with some rocks at Rockford, a place where the East Lyn River is at its calmest and only knee deep, and you might roll up your trousers and wade across with caution. Unless the river is in spate...


... in which case you will have to stay at the Rockford Inn, a 17th century coaching inn, and wait for the river to subside.

Actually, these days there is a little wooden footbridge across the river just by the inn, and once across the river you can take the left hand path to Watersmeet.


The view from the bridge. The disconcertingly bouncy but fairly solid bridge.





It is a very, very green and glorious path, through the oaks and the beeches, with the East Lyn River tumbling over rocks and waterfalls alongside it. Green and glorious, but strangely free of romantic poets in white shirts.




















Yellow-flowered Cow Wheat growing beside the path.



Watersmeet is where the East Lyn River and Hoar Oak Water meet, and flow on together down to Lynmouth.




Waterfall on Hoar Oak Water.




Watersmeet House. Once a fishing lodge, but now a National Trust tea room. I arrived at 4.30pm, and the tea room closes at 5pm. Excellent timing. There was tea: a pot of good strong National Trust tea to refuel me on the return journey.




Watersmeet is so stunningly beautiful, but I am a little disappointed in how my photos turned out - pretty enough, but lacking in magic. I suppose it's one of those places that only a professional photographer could capture. But I am kicking myself for not taking a polarizing filter with me.

Comments

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That waterside path is stunning. It looks plenty magical to me.

I hear you about failure to capture things though. I've never seen the exact color of hot springs in pictures as in person. But then, YnMn Blue hadn't been invented when I was at Yellowstone.

If you like to crosspost things, you might consider common_nature. People often post walk pictures there.

Re: Wow!

[puddleshark]

It is such a beautiful walk, and through a landscape very different from my usual walks.

Yes, you have to be not just a photographer but an artist to capture the essence of a truly magical location.

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

You need basic skill to get decent pictures. You need an eye for composition to spot what would make a great picture. You need a higher level of skill to capture it precisely. And then you need luck, being in the right place with the right light and all.

Most of my pictures are adequate to pretty. I don't have the technical finesse to take great pictures consistently. But I know what to watch for, and every once in a while I get lucky and something comes out just spectacular. There's one closeup of butterfly weed in this batch like that.

Re: Wow!

[puddleshark]

Yes, being in the right place at the right moment always plays a big part. And also having the knowledge and patience to place yourself in the right place, and wait for the right moment!

[kotturinn]

It looks so cool and inviting.

[puddleshark]

I think the Watersmeet path has to be one of the most beautiful I have ever taken, and so peaceful. Just the light through the trees, and the water running, and the birds calling.

[larryhammer]

You can't drop a description like "disconcertingly bouncy but fairly solid bridge" without a pic. It's not fair.

[puddleshark]

Heh!

The picture would make it look more solid than it actually is. It looks solid. Before you step on it.